THE HONOLULU DRAGON, fourth in the Robert Louis Stevenson Series by Joseph Theroux (Samoa)

The Honolulu Dragon
by Joseph Theroux (Samoa 1975-78)
346 pages
Kilauea Publications
August 2019
$2.99 (Kindle), $12.00 (paperback)

Following the success of their detective work in the cases of The Devil’s Throat and The White Kahuna, Lloyd Osbourne and his step-father Robert Louis Stevenson find themselves in a world of murder and intrigue in Hawaii. Osbourne discovers a coded message, hinting at the survival of his father, Samuel Osbourne, who has been thought long dead. Once deciphered, it leads him and Stevenson on a dangerous adventure involving torture, murder, opium smuggling, a scandal involving the late King Kalakaua, baseball gambling, and uncover assassination threats against President Sanford Dole – set to occur on July 4, 1894 — the day Dole is to announce the new Republic of Hawaii. There are snipers on the rooftops of the Iolani Palace and the Opera House, and several men have already been garroted and branded with the mark of a dragon on their arms.Does the coded phrase “I am chasing the dragon!” refer to addiction or revenge?And how is the young Duke Kahanamoku involved? Stevenson goes undercover as an opium addict to gather clues as to the smuggling trade and discover the meaning of “the Honolulu Dragon.”